Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba has said that Nigeria’s economy, which used to be mono dependent on oil, is now diversified with further emphasis on concentric diversification of the various sectors.
Agba spoke on Friday on the occasion of the 2022 African Statistical Day in Nigeria hosted in Abuja by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
He took the opportunity of his opening remarks to clarify the remarks made by one of the earlier speakers suggesting that efforts were being made to diversify Nigeria’s economy.
Agba enlightened the audience on the state of the Nigerian economy, explaining that the nation’s economy was already diversified.
He said the Federal government was already pursuing concentric diversification of the economy for rapid growth.
According to him: “The oil sector used to contribute 48 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The oil sector used to produce 90 per cent of our foreign exchange (forex) and the oil sector used to produce about 70 per cent of our revenue.
“Today, the oil sector contribution to our GDP is about 6.8 percent. The contribution to national revenue especially in 2022 is practically zero.
“We are running this economy based on non-oil sector.”
Agba also took the opportunity to validate the comments of the Statistician-General of the NBS, Prince S A. Adeniran that the data produced and released by the Bureau were independent.
Adeniran said that the data were free of interferences by both the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Dr Zainab Ahmed and the Ministe of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Agba, who supervises the NBS.
Agba said: “If the statistics show that there are issues, we have to release them as they are so that the relevant MDAs, the relevant State, relevant stakeholders who should deal with them and ensure that the right thing is done so that we are on the right path to growth would know and focus on those areas.”
THE CONCLAVE reports that Agba had in his opening remarks stated that statistics were crucial to economic and social development of any nation.
The minister said that statistics always generated public debate which contributed to the progress of nations.
According to him, “statistics are necessary for forming government policies and programmes, building globally-competitive businesses, academic research, developing innovative technologies and products, making investment decisions, and building the economic and social environment for future generations which make them undeniably crucial to daily existence.”
The theme for this year’s African Statistical Day celebration, entitled: “Strengthening Data Systems by modernizing the production and use of agricultural statistics: Informing policies with a view to improving resilience in agriculture, nutrition and food security in Africa,” according to him, was very relevant to the current situation in the country, “particularly when considered against some of the figures from the Multidimensional Poverty Index Survey results launched on Thursday.”
“This year’s celebration of African Statistics Day comes at a time that the global community is challenged from the effects of the war between Russia and Ukraine, making it imperative for governments across the continent to be properly informed to take adequate measures to cushion the impact of the conflict, especially as it has to do with improving resilience in agriculture, nutrition and food security.
“There is no doubt therefore that the theme for this year’s celebration was well thought out, particularly, as there is currently the need to produce high quality economic statistics for Africa’s regional and economic transformation, in addition to the need for achieving the targets set by the United Nations through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and by the African Union in Agenda 2063 – “The Africa we want,” the Minister had said.
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